How much is an email address worth?

I recently got the question: “How can I use my website to make my business more money?” What a great question! Note: This question was not asked by an online retailer. They offered a number of articles online and asked if charging for the articles was possible. Just $0.99 per article, just as an extra revenue stream. I shuttered at the thought, and we both agreed it probably wasn’t the best approach — especially from an ROI perspective when talking about implementation costs.

So their business model is not to drive revenue through the website but more focused on driving engagement of interested parties. Although they sell merchandise online, their ultimate goal is to drive workshop attendance. The site features a top-notch speaker and the main message of the website is to engage with him, get to know him, and fork over the dough to listen to him talk. Another note: Totally worth it, and I’m not just saying that.

I suggested something simple: “Whenever they need to download the PDF of an article, why don’t we ask for their email address?” We would then email the link to the PDF. I suggested this for two reasons:

1. Email marketing is an extremely cost-effective way to nurture leads and keep a steady stream of communication going with interested existing/prospective customers.
2. It provides a method to push communication to engaged visitors to the website.
3. It could ultimately lead in a workshop attendance. It’s all about timing. By delivering an email message to an interested party at the right time, we are far more likely to earn their business than if we were just provide the download outright.

Of course, we’ll only find out how successful this methodology, but there is significant value to having someone’s email address. Not so we can SPAM them–though, I’m sure it can be tempting to email them until they never want to be emailed again–but so we can get to know them better while also getting the message out to more people through multiple channels. From there, we can garner tons of data about what is successful at driving workshop attendance, and tailor our marketing programs even further to better our revenue-generation strategy.